Our third annual New Russian Drama Festival, to take place at Salvage Vanguard Theater from February 8 - 10, promises an opportunity for particularly rich immersion in the best that Russian theater has to offer today. Celebrated Russian playwright Yury Klavdiev will join us for a 5-day Austin residency, where he will join visiting artists David White (A.D., Generous Company), John Freedman (Theater Correspondent, The Moscow Times), Pavel Shishin (A.D., 5th Theater, Omsk), and Maria Kroupnik (Independent Producer, Moscow) for a weekend of discussions around contemporary Russian theater, and Mr. Klavdiev's work. The main event for the festival will be Breaking String Artistic Director Graham Schmidt's staging of two Klavdiev plays, forming a single night of theater: Martial Arts (adapted by David White) and I am the Machine Gunner (translated by John Freedman).

JOHN FREEDMAN has translated three dozen Russian plays which have been performed in the United States, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa, including five works by Maksym Kurochkin. His translation of Olga Mukhina's Flyingwas produced in 2011 at Breaking String Theater. He has published and/or edited nine books about Russian theater, and for two decades has been the theater critic of The Moscow Times. He was the Russia director of The New Russian Drama project at Towson University, 2007- 2010, and the director of the U.S.-government supported New American Plays for Russia program, 2010-2012. With the company and Jennifer Johnson he was co-author of the Double Edge Theatre performance The Firebird in 2010, and his play Dancing, Not Dead won the new play competition conducted by The Internationalists in 2011.

MARIA KROUPNIK A Moscow-based project manager, translator, and media specialist, cooperates with a number of Russian theatres, including Teatr.doc, J. Beuys Theatre, Theatre ‘Centre for Playwriting and Directing.’ Her translations/subtitle adaptations of Nina Belitskaya’s Pavik Is My God and Elena Gremina’s 1 Hour 18 Minutes were showcased at the Golden Mask Festival’s Russian Case in 2010 and 2011. In conjunction with Yale University, she translated Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Life of the Russian Girls, which was featured as part of their “Workshop on Begovaya” project, performed in December 2011. Kroupnik has also worked in media and public affairs for the British Embassy in Moscow and the British Council in Moscow.

PAVEL SHISHIN Literary Director of the Fifth Theater. Omsk is considered by many to be a theatrical city surpassed in reputation only by Moscow, St. Petersburg and, perhaps, Yekaterinburg. The Fifth Theater, created 20 years ago, has contributed a great deal to that reputation. It is a house that champions new, cutting edge work, often supporting it with workshops and festivals. The Fifth Theater is the host of the biannual Young Theaters of Russia festival which brings many emerging artists to perform in Omsk. Pavel has been instrumental in running this festival, as well as several new drama workshops that have helped bring important new plays to the attention of Russian theater.

Sponsored by: The Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies